


A place of calm and order

by redsnake05



Category: The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer
Genre: Domestic, F/M, coming home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 04:57:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13069605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsnake05/pseuds/redsnake05
Summary: Sir Tristram, despite being a great collector of antiquities and artworks, prided himself on having a comfortable home. He hadn't thought much about what would change when he brought Sarah into it, but he had vaguely expected some kind of feminine housewifery to settle into effect. He had not expected her to completely overset the household just by her arrival.





	A place of calm and order

**Author's Note:**

  * For [innie_darling (innie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/innie/gifts).



One of the things that had both baffled and attracted Sir Tristram about Sarah Thane was her unconventional lifestyle and complete lack of surprise in the face of nearly anything possible. As the carriage pulled up to the front doors of his home, he hoped very much that she would not be disappointed in his home. It was an oasis of calm and order, and he hoped that she would be comfortable and happy here.

He leaped out and let the steps down himself to hand Sarah from the carriage. He turned, surprised to find no sign that his household had even noticed his arrival. Lips compressing in displeasure, for this was not the impression he wanted to create on his bride, he signalled to the driver to take the carriage round to the stables. He led her up the modest front steps and rang his own doorbell.

The door was flung open, after a considerable wait, by a bedraggled personage that he could only just recognise as his butler.

"Sir Tristram!" he gasped. "Lady Thane! Oh, dear, the message never got to you then!"

"Yes, Perkins," said Sir Tristram, "here we are, as expected." He walked into the entrance hall, with Sarah behind him, and Perkins shut the door and wrung his hands in dismay. "Tell me at once what has happened."

"Mrs Tucker wished to clean the carpets," he said, in despairing accents. Tristram raised an eyebrow and Perkins did his best to hold himself together. "Mr Leyland, the gardener, being handy with machines, devised a pump to raise water to the top floors, to save carrying up the stairs. He put the stable boy and the gardener's boy on to pump, and it appears that, in a frenzy of helpfulness and perhaps competitive high spirits, they did not realise they should pump just when directed, but pumped all evening, and again since dawn this morning!"

Tristram opened his mouth to offer a blistering retort, when Sarah interjected. "Oh dear," she said. "I am sure that's enough to cause any household some uproar. I will come and help at once."

Tristram opened his mouth again, this time to protest her involvement. She was his bride, and it was unseemly for her to enter into this scene of chaos. She put her hand on his arm. "My dear, how different this is from my stuffy imaginings."

He looked at her and caught the distinct laugh in her eyes. Of course she taking this in her stride. He could only imagine that she had faced with equanimity many more vexatious situations than this, and he remembered again why he loved her.

"Naturally, I planned it that way, so you would feel at home," he retorted. "Perkins, lead the way and give me a report - a brief report - of the damage so far."

Looking at Sarah as if he was beholding an angelic vision who had spared him the wrath of the gods, Perkins pulled himself together and led the way towards the stairs.

"There is no damage to the library," he said, clearly determined to regain his reputation as a cool and unflappable domestic force, "or to any of the principal rooms. There is significant flooding of two of the back bedchambers, the rooms directly below them, and part of the hallway and gallery - though not, it must be noted, the part that houses your collection."

Tristram was relieved to hear that it was unlikely that any of his collection had been damaged. He also wanted to avoid water damage that would necessitate expensive and inconvenient repairs, of course, but, since he couldn't remember the last time he'd even been into the back bedchambers and couldn't clearly remember which rooms were underneath them, he was prepared to face the situation with rather more sangfroid.

In the back bedrooms, a small army of servants seemed to be engaged in removing everything portable. Perkins showed them the work being done and earnestly entreated them to step downstairs to take some refreshment after their journey. Tristram met Sarah's eyes with a smile. He couldn't imagine anything less likely than her sitting downstairs sipping tea in ineffectual state with the house in an uproar around them. She matched his smile.

"Nonsense," she said. "A cup of tea would be excellent, for both of us and for the staff engaged in work here. I will myself kindle a fire in both the fireplaces, to assist with the drying, though I fear the carpets will all have to come up in those rooms."

"I agree," said Tristram. He started stripping off his coat. "Perkins, do you send one of the maids for tea, and I will take my place in the removal effort."

Tristram found Perkins's face of horror quite laughable. His butler was clearly aghast at the thought of his master, and especially his new mistress, setting to work, but Perkins swallowed back any protest he might have thought of making and acquiesced with good grace.

"Of course Sir Tristram," he said. "Lady Thane." He bowed to them both and left. 

"Oh, my love, I was expecting some domestic witchcraft, but not the complete overthrow of all standards and decorum within the first hour of your arrival!" Tristram said. Sarah took his coat from him and put it over the back of a chair as he tugged free his cravat

"I do not see how this can possibly be my fault," Sarah protested through her laughter. "This is still your ramshackle household! I haven't given a single order yet."

"I expect complete turmoil when you do," Tristram said. He caught her close and kissed her soundly. She clung to his shoulders and Tristram loved the equal passion she brought to everything they did. She pulled back and looked up at him flirtatiously as she undid the top of his shirt, before pressing a kiss to the bare patch of skin she uncovered.

"My dear, this is not helping with the repair efforts," Tristram pointed out. In truth, he wished for nothing more than to kiss her again, slowly and more lingeringly. He wanted her clever fingers to continue dealing with his restrictive clothing.

"Very well," she said. She ran her hands down his chest before stepping back and letting him roll up his sleeves. "You go and make yourself useful with lifting and carrying, and I will go and demonstrate one of my few domestic skills in lighting the fires."

Tristram rather thought that someone else could be employed to light the damn fires, but he also knew that Sarah was not one to sit idly by, and she would find some way to be of use in this crisis. Instead, he kissed her again before fishing his tinderbox from the pocket of his jacket and handing it to her. It was unusual for a woman of her quality to know how to kindle a fire with one, but everything he had learned about Sarah told him to expect the unexpected at all times. He was finding it to be an agreeable situation.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A place of calm and order [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17200844) by [blackglass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackglass/pseuds/blackglass)




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